God Determines Our Purpose At Every Age

Come, let us worship and bow down;let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.For He is our God,and we are the people of His pasture,the sheep under His care.

-Psalm 95:6-7

I celebrated my birthday this week, and for the first time, I began to see my age as a deterrent. Yes, there are physical signs of my growing older–the arthritis in my left knee and the stiffness in my back–and I cannot claim to have the agility I did as a teenager. However, I know I’ve taken the aches and pains, and the number of my age, too far in my mind and created excuses. If I spend too much time defining myself by my age, or letting the world dictate my purpose because of my age, then I’m going to miss out on God’s purposes for my life going forward.

Lately, I’ve began to mentally go through the Bible and to recall the ages of some of the people God used to glorify Himself.

“The Lord said to Abram [Abraham]: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him…Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran” (Genesis 12:1, 4).

“Abraham was 100 years old [Sarah was 90] when his son Isaac was born to him.” (Genesis 21:5, [17:17])

“Isaac was 40 years old when he took as his wife Rebekah…Issac was 60 years old when [Jacob and Esau] were born” (Gen. 25:20, 26).

“Moses was 120 years old when he died; his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not left him” (Deuteronomy 34:7). We know the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, which means Moses was 80 when He was called by God at the burning bush.

David was a teenager when Samuel anointed him king of Israel (1 Sam. 16:12-13). However, “David was 30 years old when he began his reign; he reigned 40 years” (2 Sam. 5:4). While David was chosen to be king, he didn’t actually began reigning until he was thirty.

Jesus too didn’t begin His ministry until the age of thirty. “As He began His ministry, Jesus was about 30 years old” (Luke 3:23).

Jesus healed a man “who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:5-6).

I believe God revealed the ages of many of these individuals for a reason–to demonstrate that with God, all things are possible (Matt. 19:26). Our age, and our definition of what we can do at our age, has nothing to do with God having the power to use our lives to glorify Himself. Look at Abraham and Moses. Abraham didn’t begin walking with God until age 75, and Moses didn’t begin his mission to be God’s servant in delivering the Israelites until he was 80! Sarah didn’t have Isaac until she was 90! God shows us in His Word that age is not a hindrance to His kingdom purposes. No matter what age God calls us, He can work through us and bring glory to His kingdom.

Are you using age as a deterrent to God’s purpose for your life? If so, confess your sin and believe that all things are possible with God, at any age. We are not the factor in the equation, God is. And He has all power and all authority to accomplish His will in each one of us. It’s never too late for you and me to fulfill every plan and purpose God has for us, starting today.